Automatic gasoline saver



United States Patent 3,039,449 AUTOMATIC GASOLINE SAVER Wo clechMokrzycki, Canadian Research & Development Foundation, 1434 Queen St.W., Toronto 3, Ontario, Canada Filed June 12, 1961, Ser. No. 116,626 4Claims. (Cl. 123-124) This invention relates to improvements in thefield of fuel economizers for gasoline engines, and more particularly toimprovements in automatic economizers for use with internal combustionengines such as generally utilized in automobiles, trucks, and the like.

Auxiliary economizers of the type herein described, provide a devicewhich will regulate the volume of secondary air supplied to the intakemanifold of the vehicles engine, in proportion to the requirements ofthe engine under varying loads and conditions.

It is conventional practice to utilize fuel economizers consisting ofsimple petcocks which are usually manually regulated, or other types ofair valves which may be manually regulated to meet the requirements ofthe engine, these conventional devices having the disadvantage that anunreasonable amount of air noise is usually attendant. Anotherdisadvantage inherent in these conventional devices is that improperadjustment thereof usually results in a drop of overall efiiciency ofthe vehicles engine, thereby nullifying the value of the device. Anotherdisadvantage of some existing conventional devices is that they are of avery complex nature, having a very limited scope of adjustment, with theresult that they operate satisfactorily on only one type of internalcombustion engine, at one engine speed.

-It is an object of this invention to provide an automatic gasolinesaver, in the following called gasoline saver, containing primaryadjustment means adapted to set up the gasoline saver to suit theparticular size of engine on which it is mounted, such primaryadjustment means thereafter being locked permanently until such time asthe gasoline saver is removed and located on a different type of engine.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver asdescribed above, containing automatic adjustment means adapted to suitvarying immediate requirements of air to the intake manifold of theengine to ensure peak efliciency thereof at all times.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a gasoline saversuitable to service a wide range of internal combustion engines.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saverin the form of an auxiliary automatic air valve utilizing a ball valveretained in suspension between two balance springs, one spring havinggreater tension therein than the other spring, to bias the ball valvetowards its seat in precalculated selective relation to the vacuumwithin the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saverutilizing a ball valve therein, yet without the conventionaldisadvantage of possibility of the ball valve sticking to the valveseat.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saveras above, wherein the spring, biasing the ball valve towards its seat,is firmly held at its opposite location thereby always accuratelybiasing the ball valve to a constant concentric location in regards tothe seat.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an automatic gasoline saver embodying thisinvention, shown installed in a vacuum line from an engine manifold.

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FIG. 2 is a part fractional, mid-vertical sectional view of the gasolinesaver shown in FIG. 1 taken on the line 2-2.

FIG. 3 is a fractional, enlarged sectional view of the valve body of thegasoline saver shown in FIG. 2 illustrating in greater detail the ballvalve components in relationship to each other.

Referring to FIG. 1, the illustrated automatic gasoline saver indicatedgenerally by arrow 10, comprises an air strainer 11 of conventionaldesign, which is adapted to frictionally encompass a valve body 12 ofsubstantially cylindrical configuration, threadably attached onto airinlet tube 13, to permit variance in the longitudinal relationshipbetween valve body 12 and air inlet tube 13, any desired relationshipbeing maintained by knurled locknut 14 or other conventional means.Manifold chamber 15 extends downwardly from air tube 13 and communicateswith two tubular passageways 16 and 17 suitable to permit insertionthereof into a vacuum line 30 between an engine manifold 31 and awindscreen wiper motor 32, passageway 16 being internally spirallyrifled, passageway 16 being located towards engine manifold 31.

Referring to FIG. 2, and FIG. 3, an air inlet port 20 is located axiallythrough upper end of vertically arranged valve body 12, communicating atits lower extremity with an enlarged axial 23 ending in valve seat 21uponwhich' a ball valve 22 will seat, upon additional air not beingrequired by the engine. An ejector spring 24 is located in passage 23,biasing ball 22 away from seat 21, thus eliminating the possibility ofball 22 adhering to valve seat 21, when ball valve 22 is called upon toopen. A frusto-conical cavity 25, having its small end at valve seat 21,ex-

tends downward from ball seat 21, terminating in an.

axial cylindrical bore 25 which extends downwardly for the length of thevalve body. Primary spring 27 being substantially of :frusto-conicalconfiguration is located with its small end within bore 25A extendingdownwardly from ball valve 22 through cavity 25 and cylindrical bore 26,thence downwardly through cylindrical bore 28 of air inlet tube 13,terminating at its lower end and being frictionally located and heldsubstantially centrally by a counterbore 29 within manifold 15.

It will be noted, there is illustrated in the foregoing figures, an airstrainer 11, not shown in detail, because it does not form a part of thepresent invention, but may be secured to the device embodying theinvention, by any means common to the art.

Spring 17 is seated at its lower end and held frictionally within thecounterbore 29, thereby causing ball valve 22 to be held in axialalignment with valve seat 21.

In operation it will be understood that the present device is insertedin vacuum line 30 leading to engine manifold 31 by, for instance,severing vacuum line 30 leading from engine manifold 31 to windshieldwiper motor 32 and loeating the two severed ends of the line onto thetwo extending lines protruding from the lower end of the device, the oneend 16 containing a spiral rifling being attached to the portion of theline 30 leading towards engine manifold 31 thereby providing a swirlingaction of the air as this progresses through the spiral rifling, toprovide better mixing of the secondary air with fumes already in enginemanifold 31.

Vacuum within manifold 31 is transferred through vacuum line 30 and thebody 12 of the device 10 to the ball valve 22, tending to unseat this,the unseating action being proportional to the speed of the engine anddifferential biasing force of the 'frusto-conical spring 27 and thesecondary spring 24 in combination. The frusto-conical shape of thevalve chamber 25 with the ball valve 22 having a valve seat 21 at thesmall end of the valve chamber 25, permits the air suction within thepassage area to determine the axial disposition of the ball valve 22within the frusto-conical chamber 25 at anyphase in the operation of theengine due to the vacuum present at any time.

High speed of the engine will provide high vacuum, thereby sucking theball valve 22 further down toward the larger end of the frusto-conicalchamber 25 and thereby permitting a comparatively larger volume of airthan would be the case at lower speeds, this bringing about theincreased economy in running of the engine and also providing forgreater efiiciency in engine performance.

A particular feature of this invention resides in the utilization of thetwo springs 24 and 27 one on each side of the ball valve 22, thesecondary spring 24 providing that the ball valve 22 always is suspendedbetween two compression springs, thereby preventing chattering of theball 22 against the valve seat 21 as could be the case upon utilizingonly one spring biasing the valve towards its seat, due to hysteresis inthe spring preventing the spring from following the ball valve in fastmovement towards the seat thereby at certain times permitting the ballto float freely in air and chatter against the valve seat.

A further particular feature in this invention resides in the fact thatthe lower end of the frusto-conical spring 27 is held firmly in thedevice, thereby providing that the upper end or larger end of thefrusto-conical spring 27 always cradles the ball valve 22 axiallytowards the valve seat 21 without toppling action sideways of thefrusto-. conical spring 27 permitting the ball valve 22 to hit one sideof the valve seat 21 before seating fully.

It will be understood that the device may be attached to any part of theintake manifold or its connection with carburetor and that the design ofthe present device may bealtered as required by manufacturing processesand the like while still remaining within the spirit and scope of thisinvention without prejudicing the novelty thereof. The embodiments ofthe invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed aredefined as follows: 1. A gasoline saving device for an internalcombustion engine having an intake manifold, said device comprising avalve body having an axial passage therethrough terminating in endopenings, one of said end openings forming an airingress portcommunicating with the ambient atmosphere for admission of air tosaiddevice, said other opening formig a egress for the admitted air wherebyit ment towards said valve seat, said chamber being characterized inthat the small end thereof meets said seat and is dimensioned to onlyprovide clearance about said valve element for the seating of said valveelement, and the large end of said chamber being dimensioned to providean air passage area around proportionate to' the sum of of thecross-sectional area of said valveelement and the area of said axialpassage, whereby the position to which the valve element recedes withinthe confines of said chamber determines the air flow passagetherearound, and a secondary coaxially located chamber situated betweensaid valve seat and said ingress port, said secondary chamber containingsecondary spring means biasing said valve element away from said valveseat.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which said frustoconical springis a compression spring with tension biasing said valve element towardssaid valve heat being of a greater order than tension in said secondaryspring biasing said valve element of said valve seat.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which said egress end of saidvalve body is adjustably connected to a conduit to selectively varytension in said frusto-conical spring, said conduit having T-shapedoutlet ports for connection to two severed ends of a vacuum lineattached to said manifold of said internal combustion engine.

4. A device as set forth in claim 3 in which said T is supplied withinternal spiral riflings in the port located downstream towards saidmanifold of said combustion engine.

liteferences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

